The present invention relates to an air-conditioning apparatus and, more particularly, to an air-conditioning apparatus using a heat pipe, wherein the state (e.g., temperature, humidity, wet-bulb temperature or enthalpy) of outside air with the set state (e.g., temperature or humidity) of supply air, and the supply air is supplied in the set state (temperature, humidity) by controlling the supply air by changing the flow passage of ventilation air and outside air through the selective opening/shutting of dampers, cooling the outside air by latent heat by spraying mist, and cooling and humidifying the supply air.
In general, air-conditioning has an object of making people in a house, hotel, meeting hall, office, a computer center and a variety of types of industrial facilities in a comfortable state by maintaining comfortable indoor conditions, such as temperature, humidity, scent and air current, in a state suitable for intended purposes of the place. The state of the indoor air which is comfortable for people does not have a specific value because it is influenced by several conditions, such as the climate, clothing, the standard of living and the health of the people. In order for the places, such as the workshop of a factory, a warehouse, a laboratory and a computer center, to sufficiently achieve their intended functions, the indoor air must maintain a state most suitable for things produced, processed, stored or tested in the places or a variety of types of apparatuses operating in corresponding places.
For example, air-conditioning is used so that quality of a product is uniform and defective products are not generated. For example, humidity is relatively set high in a cigarette factory so that tobacco leaves are not cut into small pieces and overly dried into powder, the temperature is set low in the chocolate factory so that chocolate does not melt to lose the original shape, dust is reduced to a minimum in a semiconductor fabrication factory, and the flow of air is made slow by considering the influence of air flow on living things in a physiological laboratory.
Korean Patent Nos. 10-1346747 and 10-1295312 disclose an air-conditioning apparatus using an indirect heat exchanger in which synthetic resin, paper or non-woven fabric are stacked.
In the conventional technology, outside air is directly supplied indoors or the inside air is circulated and resupplied indoors again. In order for the air supplied indoors to have a set temperature, the temperature of the air supplied indoors is controlled by indirectly heat-exchanging the outside air and the inside air selectively.
However, in the conventional technology that uses an indirect heat exchanger in which synthetic resin, paper or non-woven fabric are stacked, the heat exchange efficiency is low because thermal conductivity is low, and energy consumption for heating or cooling air supplied indoors is increased due to low heat exchange efficiency.